Breeding Journal DataSheet
This first post should be updated regularly to include new information as events take place or changes are made to your system
General Species: Doryrhamphus excisus (Bluestripe pipefish)
Social Structure: One mated pair
Size of Individuals: 2-3"
Age of Individuals: Unknown. I've had them for a little over a year.
Date added to Tank: A little over a year ago. The earliest date I have documented is 8/8/2010.
Broodstock Tank Details Size of Tank: 210 Gallons
Substrate Details: Aragonite sand
Filtration Details: Skimmer, chaeto in sump.
Water Changes: Varies with my enthusiasm for doing it. I've been trying to do 5% daily recently.
Water Temperature: Diurnal range from 78-82F
Lighting: 4 x 39 watt T5 actinics + 3 x 250 watt MH.
Lighting Cycle: Actinics are on 12 hours a day. MH are on 6 hours a day.
Other Tank Inhabitants: Many other fish and inverts. 1 Yellow Tang, 1 Flame Hawkfish, 1 Coral Beauty Angel, 1 Clown Goby, 2 Ocellaris clowns, 2 RBTAs, 1 Coral Banded Shrimp, 2 Cleaner Shrimp, several Peppermint Shrimp, assorted snails and hermit crabs, various soft corals, lots of live rock arranged to provide as many caves and hiding places as possible, a bunch of halimeda I'd like to get rid of, some aiptasia..... you get the idea.
Broodstock Feeding Details Food Types: Various frozen meaty foods, which they take freely. They also hunt copepods, and probably the mysids in the tank, too, all day long.
Feeding Schedule: 2-3 times a day.
Spawning Details Date of First Spawn: 8/8/2010 or thereabouts.
Spawn Time of Day: Not seen, I've heard it is in the morning, right after they wake up.
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: Roughly every 4-6 days or so. He is perpetually pregnant.
Courtship Details: They seem to always hang out together.
Egg Size: I've never seen them well enough to determine size. They are hidden in the male's skin flaps on his abdomen.
Egg Color: Orange
Egg Count: Perhaps 50 or so
Hatch Details Hatch Date: 9/1/2011. After the 9/1/2011 hatch, there was another hatch on 9/5/2011. They have hatched ever 4 days since then, quite reliably.
Hatch Time of Day: Evening, after lights out, about 10:00 PM
# Days after Spawn: Appx. 4
Larvae Description: Like tiny cute copies of the parents, appx. 3/16" long.
Larval Tank Details Temperature: Ambient room temp, low 70s F
Size of Larval Tank: Initially, a 2 gallon fishbowl kriesel.
Substrate Details: None
Other Tank Decor: None
Filtration Details: Live phytoplankton (Isochrysis and Thalassiosira).
Lighting: 13 watt fluorescent aquarium strip light placed over the fishbowl, later changed to a 6500K CFL in a clamp-on reflector fixture.
Lighting Cycle: Appx. 18 H on / 6 H off.
Water Changes: Small and frequent. As I turkey baste out waste, I top off the fishbowl with clean salt water.
Larval Feeding Details Food Types: Rotifers, Acartia tonsa, Apocyclops pamanemsis, Parvocalanus crassiostris, hermit crab larvae.
Feeding Schedule: Just keep food items of all types present at all times. Most of them reproduce by themselves, once the tank is seeded and fed live phyto.
Metamorphosis/Settlement Date of Settlement Start: 9/17/2011
Days after Hatch: 12
Date of Settlement End: 9/17/2011
Description of Fry: Small versions of parents, more orange coloration than the larvae. More opaque than the larvae. Still don't have adult coloration yet.
Grow-Out Tank Details Temperature: 74 F
Size of Grow-Out Tank: 5.5 Gallons
Substrate Details: None
Other Tank Decor: A few Black ABS Pipes
Filtration Details: Small HOB filter
Lighting: Fluorescent strip light
Lighting Cycle: Manual, appx. 16 H on / 8 H off
Water Changes: Irregular, weekly.
Size at Transfer: Various -- from 1/2" to 1"
Age at Transfer: Various -- from 2 - 3 weeks or so.
Grow-Out Feeding Details Food Types: Copepods of various species (mostly Apocyclops and Tigriopus), Moina, Frozen BBS, Frozen Cyclops
Feeding Schedule: Several times a day. Fewer times when trying to wean onto the frozen foods.
Additional Information We originally got two males and two females. They were placed into a 29 gallon species tank, originally. They seemed to be two pairs that got along nicely together. One of the males died almost immediately (within just a couple of days). As soon as that male died, the larger female became very aggressive toward the lone female. I moved the lone female to the 210 gallon tank to protect her. The pair in the 29 gallon started mating within a few weeks. After a couple of months, the female in the 29 gallon then died. I put the lone male into the 210, and the female who had been living in the 210 and the newly introduced male found each other within about 5 minutes, and have been inseparable ever since. They have been mating continuously for the last several months. I did not record the dates of all of the events just described, but I know that these two have been together at least since the first of this year. I've not yet tried to raise their fry, but am going to attempt do so now.
Miscellaneous Information:
<message edited by JimWelsh on Thursday, December 8, 2011 10:34 AM>